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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a queen,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Called the Empress of African Song, Makeba also associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her rich life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to New York in the year, she was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with a fabulous South African singer the performer leading bringing her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina was incarcerated for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin learned when studying her story. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Her parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her company Vocab Dance. Her parent would sing her music, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba performs at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in childbirth in 1985, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the show (first staged in the city in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and nods more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Her choreography includes multiple styles of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like the form.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “But she did it very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “We see movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is at the city, 22-24 October